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Book Review: Pressed to Death (Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum) by Kirsten Weiss

Pressed to Death is the second book in the Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum series by Kirsten Weiss. I think that those that have read the first book, The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum, will have a head start with character and location details. However, it has been so long since I read the first one that I forgot some of the relationship particulars. So, I think newcomers will be able to catch up pretty quickly and not miss out on much. Weiss does a good job of including reminders and details that are important in the story.

Paranormal museum owner Maddie Kosloski has the perfect exhibit for the harvest festival—a haunted grape press. But when she’s accused of stealing the press, and her accuser is murdered, all eyes turn to Maddie. Knowing the perils of amateur sleuthing as she does, Maddie is reluctant to get involved, at least until her mother insists she investigate. Does her mom have a secret agenda? Or is she somehow connected to the murder? Facing down danger and her own overactive imagination, Maddie must unearth the killer before she becomes the next ghost to haunt her museum.

Pressed to Death is a good mystery, and offered more twists than I was prepared for. I think knowing some of the previous relationships I was almost at a disadvantage, because some of the things I needed fleshed out or expanded on from the first book were almost ignored, and the coverage they had was not very deep. I liked the book, and the writing style, but the characters did not really grab me as much as they did in the first book. Although, some of the secondary characters were even more interesting than I was quite prepared for. While I was not overjoyed with the read, I do plan on continuing the series, because it has a lot of potential and I think it could get even better.

Pressed to Death is not as good as I was hoping, but it was still a fun read with plenty of adventure. I think the mystery and danger part of the book were on point, but I was distracted by all the side plots and felt like some of them could have been fleshed out in their own short story or book.